‘US trying to create terrorist state near Turkiye’: Official
Soylu also stated that the US is losing credibility around the world and is hated by everyone
By
News Desk
– April 23 2023
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(Photo credit: AFP)
Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu told CNN Turk on 22 April that the US is “trying to create a terrorist state near Turkiye,” and that Turkiye is trying to prevent this.
“After the events in Gezi (protests in Istanbul in 2013 that turned into violent clashes with the police), Turkiye has been facing a number of developments that have led to the reduction of investments. The pandemic added to that. We have been facing the biggest wave of migrants, and it may have different costs. The US wants to create a terrorist state near us. We are taking precautions,” he told the broadcaster.
In addition, the minister said that Turkiye is fighting “terrorism” for the past 40 years but that the threat remains as long as the US is involved in the region.
Soylu also stated on 19 April that the US is losing credibility around the world and that the whole world hates the country, according to Mehr News Agency.
Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, told reporters on 20 April during a conference in Baghdad that Kurdish armed groups in Iraq – most notably the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) – exploited the country’s lack of security following the 2003 US invasion in order to establish bases and launch attacks from the border.
“The situation that Iraq faced since 2003 – our fight against terror – led us to lose focus and control of our borders … and armed groups exploited this situation and began to threaten the security of neighboring countries, especially Turkiye,” Sudani said.
The Turkish state and the PKK have been sworn foes for decades. Conceived as a political organization in Turkiye in the late 1970s, the group’s armed wing was formed not long after and has been engaged in guerilla warfare against Ankara since. In the 1980s, the PKK launched an armed insurrection in southwest Turkiye.
Outlawed in Turkiye, the PKK operates illegally southwest of the country, as well as in northern Iraq and Syria, through its Syrian branch, the YPG, which is military aligned with the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
